“By Jove, I think so, too, now that you point it out,” said Chick. “They must have been written by the wearer of the Mexican costume, who hired it from Perrot under the name of Talbot.”
“Certainly, since it was he who wrote the note given by him to Mollie Waldmere.”
“Unquestionably.”
“Plainly, then, the chauffeur’s note was not sent in to him at all,” Nick continued. “He wrote it himself. He did so only to put it in the pocket of his costume, knowing it would be found later and that murder would then be suspected, a suspicion seemingly confirmed by the finding of the gashed and bloodstained cape worn by Waldmere.”
“You now think, then, that the whole business is only a blind?”
“The murder part of it.”
“And that Waldmere is alive?”
“I do.”
“And confined somewhere pending a settlement for the job?”
“That is precisely what I suspect.”